Martin Luther King Jr.

Growing up in the quaint, liberal Northern Idaho town that I did, I was blessed with a childhood filled with corny but adorably awe-spiring breakfasts, fundraisers, fairs, and various events surrounding human rights, Renaissance culture, discrimination, and political liberation. This year, my sister won the art contest as part of the City Council Human Rights Institute MLK Breakfast (say that five times fast). My sister's artwork has dumbfounded my family since the day she made a cow in preschool look like, well, a legitimate cow roaming the rolling hills instead of the usual lump that four year olds tend to create but recently, we aren't the only ones who have been struck by her genius. I am so proud of her and the true thought she put into representing MLK and what he stood for. Being home for these six weeks has shown me more than ever before the young-woman she is becoming and I'm absolutely in awe of her every single day (even when she's kicking my butt and showing my old High-School self up the wazoo). 

For two weeks, my family and I literally watched my sister for hours on end every single day in the living room draw this one piece. She used charcoal to fill in the "white" space on black paper. The entire drawing is composed of black paper and a white piece of charcoal. Just two tools to create this. That's it! I am so, so blown away.

Anyways, the great thing about the annual breakfast is how it brings so many of our town's most dedicated and brilliant people in one place, and honors the best. For example, this year's annual Community Service winner was a bad-butt (ha!) woman who was one of my chaperone's in Mexico when I, along with about ten other students of the Environmental Club, saved sea turtles. I guess that's what I do love about my little town so much. I love that a single person inspired enough to change lives has both the opportunity and will to create a club in the High School that is more than just a club. I love that she along with two other committed community members wanted to take fifteen High School students to Mexico to save Sea Turtles and give them a truly life changing experience. It's amazing. I love that people here take initiative and because of their effort, have made my and so many of my peers' life what it is. I can honestly say without them and without their efforts, I wouldn't have gotten the academic scholarships I did. I might not have left the little town for something a little bit bigger. 

This clearly isn't an outfit post. However, as much as I write this blog for the 272 of you, I still feel like I have to write it for myself, too, the way I did before anyone had interest in what I had to say. I started out just wanting to document my life for me and I never want to lose that. I know there are those that skip the blobs of words between my pictures, and that's perfectly okay! Skip every tid bit of "life" pictures and words, if you want! We're all here for different reasons and we all have different things we're looking for. But even as my "life" posts may get the fewest comments and fewest page views, they are the foundation of what started this thing that my blog has turned into and I'm always going to blab. I want to write about things worth remembering and this weekend, this Saturday, was something I want to remember: my sister standing on a stage in the Junior High School cafeteria with a cheesy award in her hands, sitting between my parents giggling over silly presenters with golden hearts, making eye contact across the room like a Taylor Swift music video with that one child of mine, and, mostly, being surrounded by people I've known forever that inspire me and people I've never met that inspire me.

You can definitely tell when you've truly grown up as a small-Idahoan native when you start writing in the most cheesy way possible.